Archive for March, 2007


Radar image of Mars polar ice capsWell this is news to me, anyway.

Mars seems to hold enough water to bury the planet in about 11 meters of water. That’s not a vastly deep ocean by any means but that’s if it covered the whole surface. One might assume that it’s depth would vary while it flooded around land masses.

I think this is pretty much the expected result of our now extensive Mars studies. All we need now is that alien reactor to melt the Mars ice caps and create an instant atmosphere. ;)

It’s all science fiction… yeah.

This article is really a cache for CSS, XHTML and proper web design articles that I have read and want to keep a semi-permanent copy of.

(The Only) Ten Things To Know About CSS
[John Manoogian III]

Unobtrusive Javascript
[Onlinetools]

Developing Flash websites using progressive enhancement
[Adobe Developer Center]

Form field hinds with CSS and JavaScript
[Ask the CSS Guy]

Web Development Toolbox: 120+ Web Development Resources
[Mashable.com]

I Got 99 Problems, but Developing Ain’t One – 100 Essential Resources for Web Developers
[softwaredeveloper.com]

Mahou Shoujotai Poster

Mahou Shoujotai follows the adventures of a girl named Alice through a magical world. At first she gets herself and her friends into trouble and things are very light-hearted at the beginning of the series. The story takes a quick turn around the middle and comes to a fairly climactic ending. The one thing I can say is that they keep throwing wrenches into the works to keep you interested. Nothing really follows logically other than the fact that you’re pretty sure at the end of the whole thing everything will be alright.

The series comprises forty episodes at about 5 minutes per episode. The fansubs I’ve watched are actually about six and a half minutes each because they have a header that explains bits of the translation that might not translate well to English speakers. All in all I’d have to say this series was great. There was great lore, a great heroine and a great supporting cast. All of the important characters have their own motivations and story arcs which are given their due time.

I even appreciate that this isn’t a fanservice anime in the least sense. It sticks to the story at hand and I was riveted. I ended up watching many episodes in a row.

I’d give it 4 out of 5. Check it out for sure.

Official Mahou Shoujotai Site

You Might Have Just Bought a DVD, But We Still Think You’re a Criminal

This kind of crap is a source of frustration and confusion for many of us. Some of us even find it amusing that the MPAA places advertisements preaching the perils of piracy at the beginning of movies we’ve paid for. The fact of the matter is, most of the time a pirate will remove these warnings so downloaders are in fact, never bothered with this crap.

So at the end of the day, the only people bothered with anti-piracy propoganda are people who have paid to see the now de-valued material.

Will the MPAA ever “get it”?

Sources:

Now, this story comes from a site called, “Enterprise Mission.” Something about that name discredits it just about right away.

I found it fascinating, however. Apparently by plunging Galileo into Jupiter to avoid causing damage, NASA managed to ignite the Plutonium 238 fuel and create a nuclear explosion.

The article argues that this explosion atomized some of the atmospheric contaminants including carbon, which formed elementary carbon creating a dark soot spot on Jupiter that had not been there before.

There’s even a little intrigue because it’s all supposedly only documented by the hobbyist community. That seems a little shady to me as well. I think I’ll look into the details if I have the time but it’s an interesting read nonetheless.

Original Story: http://www.enterprisemission.com/NukingJupiter.html

Galileo Info.: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/